The Centre, on Thursday, pledged to accord priority to revive the economic growth and pursue reforms in wide spectrum of economy like banking, insurance, pension, foreign investment, PSU disinvestment and taxation.
Immediate priority must be to focus on management of the economy by a combination of sectoral and macro-level policies, President Pratibha Patil said in her joint address to both houses of Parliament while outlining the economic agenda of new government in next five years. She hinted the Centre would focus on sectors that are adversely affected like small and medium enterprises, exports, textiles, commercial vehicles, infrastructure and housing.
Public investment
This must be accompanied by measures to achieve a countercyclical expansion in public investment in infrastructure sectors including public-private partnerships in these sectors.
While acknowledging financing the investment will be a critical constraint, she asserted the government was determined to ensure that innovative steps were taken in this area, consistent with a medium-term strategy of prudent fiscal management. While referring to country being benefited from large foreign investment flows in recent years, she noted these flows, especially Foreign Direct Investment, need to be encouraged through an appropriate policy regime. There is also a need to augment resources in the banking and insurance sectors in order to permit them to serve the needs of society better.
Hinting at PSU disinvestment, she noted “citizens have every right to own part of the shares of public sector companies while the government retains majority shareholding and control.” “Government will develop a roadmap for listing and people-ownership of public sector undertakings while ensuring that government equity does not fall below 51 per cent,” she indicated. She said as part of strategy to boost growth, the government would focus on infrastructure development in the next five years.
A large number of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in different areas currently awaiting government approval would be cleared expeditiously.
The regulatory and legal framework for PPP would be made more investment friendly, the President indicated.
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